The present invention relates generally to new and novel improvements in placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels. More particularly, the present invention relates to placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which are particularly suitable for use in restaurants and other dining establishments for sanitary and entertainment purposes and are preferably capable of having information printed thereon using conventional printing methods or by children and interested patrons using various writing instruments, such as pencils, pens, ink markers and crayons.
Many restaurants and other dining establishments provide preprinted paper placemats and writing instruments, such as pencils, pens, ink markers or crayons, to children and other interested patrons for engaging play or entertainment, as well as for sanitary purposes, aesthetic decoration and advertising before, during and after eating meals in public. Common examples include preprinted placemats which are used to cover bare dining tables in family dining establishments or food-carrying tray preprinted paper covers which are often used in cafeteria-style or fast-food dining establishments. These preprinted placemats are often accompanied with writing instruments, such as pencils, pens, ink markers or crayons, to allow children and other interested patrons to draw pictures or xe2x80x9cdoodlexe2x80x9d while waiting for the meal to be prepared or while dining. Such preprinted placemats often include aesthetic pictorial scenes, to-be-colored line art, word games, menus and many other types of advertising that concern the dining establishment or other area businesses.
Many family-oriented dining establishments wish to provide some form of entertainment for children and other interested patrons, particularly from the time customers first sit down at a table until the time when the prepared meals are brought to their table. This is desirable because family-oriented dining establishments generally wish to preoccupy children to reduce unwanted, disruptive behavior which may negatively impact the parents"" and other patrons"" enjoyment of their dining experience. In addition, family-oriented dining establishments generally wish to create an enjoyable experience for the children. In general, the more enjoyable a dining experience is for both children, as well as their parents, the more likely it is that families will again patronize a particular dining establishment.
To enhance the entertainment value of conventional preprinted paper placemats, some dining establishments provide drawing instruments, such as pencils, pens, ink markers and crayons, and/or adhesive stickers separate from and in additional to the preprinted paper placemats. For example, a preprinted placemat may have preprinted designs which encourage children and other interested patrons to color specific areas with crayons in particular colors to create a colorful picture. Similarly, children and other interested patrons may be encouraged to decorate a preprinted picture with separately provided adhesive stickers which are adhered to specific areas to create a colorful picture. As a practical matter, such additional materials are problematic to dining establishments in that multiple items must be inventoried and dispensed to children and other interested patrons. Furthermore, it is common for children to xe2x80x9cdrawxe2x80x9d or misuse and place adhesive stickers onto the dining establishment""s fixtures, such as tables, chairs, windows, glassware, plates, etc. In such a case, dining establishment employees have the duty of removing such unwanted markings and adhesive stickers. This is time consuming for the employees and costly for the dining establishment.
Applicant is aware of several types of construction for prior art placemats and other entertainment products for dining establishments. A first known type of construction is a conventional preprinted placemat constructed from a rectangular sheet of bond paper with either one or two-sided printing. Such preprinting may convey a static design, such as a menu or pictorial scene. While such a design performs the sanitary purpose of a placemat and may convey information to customers, it fails to provide interactive, entertainment-oriented features.
A second known type of construction for prior art placemats and other entertainment products for dining establishments is a preprinted placemat constructed from a rectangular sheet of bond paper with either one or two-sided printing. Typically, this type of construction allows for creative input from children and other interested patrons in the form of games to play, pictures to draw or adhesive stickers to adhere to the preprinted placemat. While the second known type of construction for the preprinted placemat itself is similar to that described in conjunction with the first known type of construction above, the second type of construction generally requires separate drawing instruments, such as pencils, pens, ink markers or crayons, and/or separate pressure sensitive adhesive or xe2x80x9click-and-stickxe2x80x9d dry gum stickers. Disadvantages of this second known type of construction include having to provide additional materials, i.e., the drawing instruments and/or the adhesive stickers, as well as potential clean-up problems due to misuse of these materials.
A third known type of prior art product is conventional sticker books. That is, books specifically designed for children to place adhesive stickers on or inside a bound book to create or complete drawings or a story line. Such sticker books are often sold through retail stores and are also supplied to children and other interested patrons by dining establishments. Disadvantages of this type of prior art product include that the cost of such sticker books are often relatively high. Furthermore, they lack sanitary use in dining environments since such sticker books are typically not intended to be disposable or used as a barrier between a table surface and food. In addition, many such adhesive sticker products are fabricated from plastic materials and permanent adhesives making clean-up due to product misuse burdensome and costly.
Known prior art United States patents include U.S. Pat. No. 416,171 to Mahoney for an xe2x80x9cArticle of Amusement and Instruction for Childrenxe2x80x9d. This patent describes the use of one or more sheets or cards of paper or similar material having pictorial illustrations of landscapes and similar outdoor views and of houses and the interiors of the same, together with means for applying to different places on said landscape or to said interior portions of the house representations of objects belonging thereto and of changing the positions of said objects at will.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,750,309 to Tovar for a xe2x80x9cDisplay Bookxe2x80x9d describes a display book for displaying table settings of preselected patterns of silverware, china and crystal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,006 to Lawson for a xe2x80x9cPersonalized Laminated Displayxe2x80x9d describes personalized placemats and posters which may selectively use precisely shaped, precisely spaced and located alpha-numeric symbols of indicia for said personalization.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,673 to Moore for a xe2x80x9cCombination Food Carrier and Amusement Devicexe2x80x9d describes an amusement device and children""s book which also functions as a carrier for various food items, such as hamburgers and french fries.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,153 to Bachman, et al. for a xe2x80x9cPromotional Article with Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive Portions and Method of Manufacturexe2x80x9d describes a promotional article and method of making same having a pressure-sensitive adhesive without laminating a separate release sheet to the sheet upon which the pressure-sensitive adhesive is applied.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,951 to Dorsey-Zinn, et al. for a xe2x80x9cPuzzle Including Pieces Formed From a Crayon Materialxe2x80x9d describes a puzzle with two sets of puzzle pieces which can be interchangeably used to complete the puzzle, where one set of puzzle pieces is formed from a crayon material which can be used to color by a child.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,968 to Wagner for a xe2x80x9cPlacemat with Changeable Card Displayxe2x80x9d and related Continuation-in-Part U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,752 to Wagner for a xe2x80x9cPlacemat with Changeable Card Displayxe2x80x9d describe dining room placemats which include a plurality of pockets, each suitable to accommodate an available celebrity card, the pockets being preferably formed of clear plastic liquid impervious film and mounted to an upper panel of the placemat without obscuring printed or painted indicia appearing on the upper panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,305 to Grant for a xe2x80x9cPicture Making Kitxe2x80x9d describes a picture making kit including a base sheet carrying a predetermined pattern or xe2x80x9cgraphic gridxe2x80x9d, a plurality of filling elements which can be applied to the pattern by the user and an overlay sheet or xe2x80x9cmaster graphicxe2x80x9d which is superimposed on the base sheet after the filling elements have been applied and which carries a pattern of transparent, translucent or cut-out xe2x80x9cwindowsxe2x80x9d so as to create a finished picture made up of separate areas visible through the xe2x80x9cwindowsxe2x80x9d of the overlay.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,682 to Ashby for a xe2x80x9cBusiness Form with Labelsxe2x80x9d describes a business form having at least one label associated with and removable from the business form. The business form includes a paper ply having a front face and a rear face, first and second side edges parallel to each other and means defining tractor feed openings adjacent the first and second edges. A piece of transfer tape having an adhesive covered release face, a non-adhesive covered back face, and a pair of parallel side edges is positioned such that the adhesive face of the transfer tape is attached to the paper ply rear face with the side edges of the transfer tape between the tractor openings adjacent the first and second edges of the paper ply, and the transfer tape edges parallel to the first and second edges and at least one die cut formed in the paper ply front face to define, with adhesive from the transfer tape, at least one removable label.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,215 to Shields for a xe2x80x9cLaminated Article for Having Separate Pieces for Detachable Placement on a Backgroundxe2x80x9d describes a laminated article which includes a web adhesively and detachable coupled with a carrier sheet. The web includes a support layer and a top layer releasably adhered thereto configured to present a plurality of separable pieces. The carrier and pieces are imprinted with cooperating indicia for playing a game or creating a scene. Additionally, a dry release adhesive is used to adhere the respective marginal zones of the web and carrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,691 to Waldman for a xe2x80x9cSticker Activity and Coloring Bookxe2x80x9d describes a sticker activity and coloring book including a sticker page containing a plurality of removable adhesively backed stickers, a scene page associated with the sticker page and having a scene printed in color thereon and a release coating for receiving the stickers, an instructional page associated with the sticker and scene pages and showing, in black and white outline, the scene on the scene page and one arrangement of the stickers on the scene so that a user of the book may remove one of the stickers from the sticker page and transfer the removed sticker onto the scene page as shown on the instructional page and such transfer may continue until all of the stickers have been placed on the scene page and the instructional page having a surface adapted to receive coloring from a coloring instrument, so that the instructional page may be colored by the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,154 to Williams for a xe2x80x9cMethod and Materials for Calendar Fabrication Renewalxe2x80x9d describes a method of creating unexpired pictorial calendars which are produced by adherently attaching calendar stickers to bound pages. The pages are printed with artwork. The artwork is viewed with the calendar information printed on the calendar stickers. The calendar stickers have an adhesive for attachment to the pages. Expired pictorial calendars can be renewed for future use by covering expired calendar information with the calendar stickers. Also, bound artwork from any source can be converted into a pictorial calendar.
As described above, all known prior art types of construction for printed paper placemats and entertainment products have disadvantages which limit their acceptance by issuing dining establishments, the end users or both.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is the provision of placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which provide children and other interested patrons with a single integrated physical and interactive entertainment medium which encourages interaction and possible enhanced enjoyment resulting in goodwill and repeat patronage with less effort and cost on the part of dining establishes and related businesses.
Another object of the present invention is to provide placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which provide the traditional sanitary function of placemats, thus enabling traditional placemat business users to enhance their goodwill and repeat patronage with less effort and cost on the part of dining establishments and related businesses.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which reduce the clean-up time and cost resulting from misuse of traditional sticker products on dining establishments and related businesses fixtures, such as tables, chairs, windows, glassware, etc.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which utilize a removable pressure sensitive label adhesive and paper construction with is biodegradable and recyclable.
A further object of the present invention is to provide placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which can be taken by customers and end users from the dining establishments or similar businesses after dining for continued entertainment and instructional use.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which are more user-friendly and sanitary than alternative xe2x80x9click and stickxe2x80x9d or dry gum adhesive stickers.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which provide entertaining and instructional activities with a single sheet integrated placemat product.
Yet still a further object of the present invention is to provide placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels which children and interested patrons may decorate or xe2x80x9ccolorxe2x80x9d using writing instruments, such as pencils, pens, ink markers and crayons.
These and other objects of the present invention are attained by the provision of placemats having integrated adhesive stickers or labels constructed as a single sheet integrated placemat product. A preferred embodiment of the present invention is fabricated from a preprinted bond paper sheet having an underlying paper liner adhered to at least a portion of the rear surface of the printed bond paper sheet. Portions of the printed bond paper sheet have die cuts which permit removal of the preprinted designs on the integrated adhesive stickers or labels. Children and other interested patrons complete drawings on the placemats by placing or positioning the adhesive stickers or labels wherever the children or other interested patrons choose on the placemats. If desired, the adhered stickers and/or the remainder of the placemats may be further decorated or colored using various writing instruments, including pencils, pens, ink markers and crayons, to create a picture or artistic scene.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.